With the recent decision to shelf the website "The Oil Drum", many are saying that it marks the end of an era. The decision has sparked furious debate regarding the theory, and if it was all based on a fundamental mistake. The Oil Drum authors and editors are blaming the decision on the "scarcity of new content caused by a dwindling number of contributors" in a released statement. The Oil Drum is a website devoted to the discussion and analysis of energy and its impact on society.
"Because of this and the high expense of running the site, the board has unanimously decided that the best course of action is to convert the site to a static archive," they noted sadly.
For many critics, the site's downfall marks the end of the flawed theory and that the more general outlook on the fact that the commodity supercycle has turned.
"Peak oil theory has basically gone the way of the California Condor, from widespread existence and acceptance ... to near extinction," Forbes magazine wrote in a polemical column.
"Today, given the new abundance of shale oil, almost no real industry leaders are peak oil proponents," Forbes added, dismissing peak oil as "a theory based on lack of imagination."
According to the Forbes, proponents undermined the huge impact of advancing technology as it supplements industries to discover new sources of oil and to recover deposits that were previously thought as to be inaccessible.
The Oil Drum authors insisted that they are not folding for lack of interest, instead they said that peak oil has gone mainstream. "Repetition of the basic information, beyond a certain point, was counter-productive," the site claimed.
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